It is known that such a detector device is subject to detection errors due to individual false echoes. This can falsify the recognition of suspended threadlike objects. The number of detection errors must remain small in order to enable such a device to operate normally.
Document FR 2888944 describes a method of detecting the presence of at least one threadlike object suspended in the detection field of a telemeter including calculating the terrestrial coordinates of points corresponding to echoes delivered by the telemeter, selecting candidate points from amongst said points, searching in a horizontal plane for straight line segments that are close to vertical projections of the candidate points, and searching in each vertical plane containing one of the previously-found straight line segments for portions of catenaries that are close to the candidate points.
In that document, the search for catenary portions is performed using the Hough transform. Under certain circumstances, in particular when only a limited number of plots is available, the use of such a Hough transform does not lead to good processing time and the processing time needs to be shortened.
Document U.S. Pat. No. 3,069,654 describes the application of such a transform to recognizing a specific configuration within a cloud of points, e.g. a set of points that are in alignment. Once more, such a transform is unsuitable for being adapted to certain types of utilization, in particular when the number of points available is small.
The problem behind the present invention is to propose a method of detecting the presence of threadlike objects by processing telemetry measurements, which method is improved and/or remedies, at least in part, the shortcomings and the drawbacks of similar prior art methods.